The First Paper Girl in Red Oak, Iowa: Stories

by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

With the stories in her first collection, Elizabeth Stuckey-French establishes herself as a smart new voice in American fiction and stakes her claim to a territory somewhere on the edge of stability, where normal is not just boring but nearly impossible, and where standing out in a crowd may just cause isolation.

Her characters, mostly Midwesterners, are bizarre but endearing. A reform school graduate is placed in the care of her psychic aunt and in the servitude of a lucrative dog retrieval scheme. A mother who has accepted her son’s modest employment selling blue jeans bemoans the above-board lifestyle she discovers him leading as a wanted criminal. A rehab counselor lives vicariously through her already pregnant stepdaughter’s love affair with a drunk who spends his days in recovery and his nights in the bar.

Full of wry wit, tender sympathy, and heartland attitude, The First Paper Girl in Red Oak, Iowa is as strange, funny, and poignant as the real world it resembles.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Elizabeth Stuckey-French is the author of a novel, Mermaids on the Moon, a collection of short stories, The First Paper Girl in Red Oak Iowa, and, with Janet Burroway, Writing Fiction: A Guide to the Narrative Craft. Her new novel, The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady, is forthcoming from Doubleday in spring 2011. Her short stories have appeared in The Normal School, Narrative Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, Gettysburg Review, Southern Review, Five Points, and The O’Henry Prize Stories 2005. She was awarded a James Michener Fellowship and has won grants from the Howard Foundation, the Indiana Arts Foundation, and the Florida Arts Foundation. She teaches fiction writing at Florida State University.

Reviews

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have a love-hate relationship with short stories. Because they are short, I feel compelled to finish even the ones I'm not enjoying.
My idea of a good short story pretty much begins with Hemingway.

Stuckey-French's short stories were mostly uncomfortable with brief sparks of almost accidental insight into the human condition. The collection is uneven.

My favorites were "Search and Rescue" and "Leufredus." I had just about decided to stop trying to plow my way through the collection when I found these two gems nestled back-to-back about three-quarters of the way through the book. They are magnificent. Read them and don't bother with the rest.

[Vicki Nikolaidis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw a review of the book of short stories years ago in Newsweek. I knew I had to have a book that has such a great title, especially my home state Iowa.
The stories are slice of life stories. They seem to me to be the stories of real people in small towns. Ms Stuckey-French knows there is a lot more going on in small towns then meets the eye.
Mothers that hate daughters, young wives that hate their husbands daughters, and all like the truth not sugar-coated.

[Audrey (Warped Shelves) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Color me underwhelmed. Of the stories I read, the general consensus was bored out of my mind. I struggled to connect to any of the characters, and the author's style is so blasé, that the stories are forgettable unless the reader makes an effort to search for the deeper meaning in them, which I couldn't be bothered to do.

Maybe it's just me, but this short story collection screams humble-brag. Stuckey-French is pretending to be more profound than she is.


ATY 2023 Reading Challenge: A book with a faceless person on the cover
POPSUGAR 2023 Reading Challenge: A book with "girl" in the title

[Sharon Falduto]

A collection of short stories about small moments in the lives of normal people (those folks so kindly referred to as living in "flyover country"). Mostly Midwesterners, and the tone rings true. A big dash of ennui salts the stories of the UI Writer's Workshop Grad. Does the writers workshop ever graduate comedy writers?

[Jonathan Heaslet · Rating 3 out of 5]

A devious and delightful excursion assembled in a collection of 12 short stories (time frame: late 80s and early 90s) that put the fun back into dysfunctional. Midwest locales. Strong women. Women in denial. Women coping. Perceptive children. Complex children. You’ll find them all in this short book.

[Elizabeth Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each chapter is a short story, which I didn't get until further in the book. Not bad stories, but they give you a snippet into the lives of the characters and then it just ends.

[Alyssa Nedbal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall this collection was good. A few of the stories I didn't connect with, either because the characterization wasn't there or the plot was dragging - tension on little more than a simmer.

A few stood out, though, including: "Junior" and "Search and Rescue". By far my favorite of the collection was "Electric Wizard". I adore this short story, have shared it around with anyone I know who loves short stories, and still go back to read it time to time just for my own enjoyment.

It was "Electric Wizard" that saved this collection, and what makes this book worth a look.

Would have given "Electric Wizard" a full 5 stars (Yes, it's that great), but the collection as a whole is 4 (wish I could have given 4.5).

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked a few of the short stories included in this collection, but I didn't really like the rest. This is my first time reading short stories since high school and I was really hoping they would as witty as Stuckey-French's novel. Most of the stories were quite underwhelming and I hated most of the characters discussed. If you like short stories, give the collection a whirl.

[Rita · Rating 1 out of 5]

2000. I bought the book [second hand] on a whim, somehow assuming it was about a distant past.
But actually the stories, apparently based loosely on the author's childhood, are of an era no more distant than my own childhood.

I read halfway thru and then quit, didn't seem interesting enough to continue...

[Richard Jespers · Rating 5 out of 5]

I own a signed copy! ESF was the instructor of the short story class I took at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. Subtle, well-crafted stories. Liked her newest stories the best: “Electric Wizard” and “The Visible Man.”

[Tatiana · Rating 1 out of 5]

bland. i think. don't remember much. i know i didn't finish it. and it was right in the middle of a really good streak of books. very disappointing.

[joaquin]

I am more than half way done with the book. There are many different story's and different topics. There is one story that has to do with a mom trying to get custody of her child from her own mother.

[Tami · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I could rate this 3.5, I would. Many of the short stories were interesting and the characters were well defined. The stories were so different from each other.

[Becky Sidney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great short-stories that are perfect for reading in bed. Thanks, Matt.

[Phyllis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Would love to love, just couldn't despite the ties. Not imaginative

[Jaq · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was one of the books that let me know that it's possible to get published even if it's not very good.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent short stories, and especially fun if you're from the Midwest.